Unless otherwise indicated herein, the description in this section is not prior art to the claims in this application and is not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
There is known a following sheet conveyance apparatus as a typical sheet conveyance apparatus that is located in an apparatus main body of an image forming apparatus and conveys a sheet.
There is proposed a sheet conveyance apparatus that a drive roller, which is rotatably driven, and a driven roller, which is driven by the drive roller so as to rotate, sandwich a sheet to convey the sheet in a predetermined conveyance direction. The driven roller is held by a holding member, which is integrally formed with a leaf spring. The holding member includes a pair of extending portions extending along both end surfaces of the driven roller from the leaf spring, and rotatably supports a pair of shaft portions projecting from both the end surfaces of the driven roller at the extending portions. Furthermore, the holding member urges the driven roller toward the drive roller using an elastic force of the leaf spring.
However, the holding member includes the pair of extending portions, which extends along both the end surfaces of the driven roller, possibly causing the extending portions to contact side surfaces of the driven roller because of vibrations of the driven roller or a force from outside. Thus, in the above-described sheet conveyance apparatus, the contact between the driven roller and the holding member may generate a large noise.